Training vs Coaching

I am part way through reading ‘Coaching for Performance:GROWing human potential and purpose’ by John Whitmore. A key point that I have taken away so far is the difference between training and coaching.

A Trainer/Teacher instructs their Student on what and how they should do the new thing that they are learning.

A Coach will lead the student on a journey of self-discovery, aiming for the Student to become aware of the new thing that they are not doing, and then getting them to take responsibility for carrying out the new thing.

I have found that both training and coaching are useful approaches in my work. When the student is very new to subject such as agile; training works well to get them kick started and to secure a few wins, hence building their confidence. Once their foundation knowledge and confidence is in place, moving to coaching builds their awareness and responsibility which leads to long term success.

The beginning

It has always amazed me how much hard won knowledge is freely available on the internet, especially in blog posts. 2012 is the year that I hope to contribute to that knowledge base.

My first thoughts for a blog were of agile software development. To me agile is currently the best way to build software, however I whole heartedly subscribe to Alistair Cockburn’s Oath of Non Allegiance and hence I wanted my blog to be broader then just my journey towards agile.

This blog is my journey towards better ways of building software; building the right software and building the software right.